I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings Thesis

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Final Essay
Maya Angelou’s life was full of influential events that transformed her from a young, insecure black girl from the South, to a proud, strong, and independent African-American. She endured so much pain and many obstacles in her childhood that created a strength within herself that could not have been achieved otherwise. In comparison, my life so far has not been that difficult, I have many privileges and supportive influences in my life. The challenges that I have had seem so miniscule compared to what Maya encountered on a daily basis. In her memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou reveals the story of how she grew to understand her true identity through the challenging and pivotal moments in her life including prejudice against her race, her feeling of displacement in the world, and being raped. From overcoming these struggles, Maya is able to make a friend, have pride for herself, and be hopeful for the future.
Racism and segregation play a huge role in Maya’s life, they affect the way that she thinks about herself and sometimes makes her feel less than she really is. At one point in Angelou’s memoir she describes how she had an incredibly painful toothache and how it was “terribly unfair to have a toothache and a headache and have to bear at the same time the heavy burden of
However, I can compare it to how I was born privileged and do not have challenges in my daily schedule anywhere close to Maya’s regular experiences. Maya endured moments and events that required so much of her emotional strength and there were many times that she didn’t like being Black because she was constantly viewed as below others. Racism still exists and it is hard for me to see and hear about it around me and I can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her, especially in that time